Haha, It's 9:30 am and I just went to the washroom on our floor in our office building. Upon walking into the washroom there were signs posted on each stall door that cannot be missed:
"GENTLEMEN, please keep the toilets CLEAN!!! Please be more considerate and MATURE. Other people shouldn't have to clean up other people's mess before using it."
Hahahaha... and when you open the door to the urinal stall there's a majesctic computer printed sign of:
"AIM IN THE MIDDLE"
Ran into a co-worker in the washroom and we had a good laugh.
Hahahahhaa.... shit I forgot my camera today... I should take a pic with my phone...
So here I am trying to book two tickets to berlin taking advantage of a great deal on their site (75 euros one way for two people)... everything goes well until I put payment through and the system errors out and doesn't give me a confirmation. So I check my bank account and yes the funds were taken out.
So after, I head to the office in central station and they tell me they can't help me because the internet site is completely separate and I would have to call the number on their site (even though they have the EXACT same name).
So after picking up some groceries since I was already out I call when I get back and the help desk is closed - but the systems warns me in dutch that the call will cost me 70 euro cents per minute (35 for the help desk rate - YES THAT IS RIGHT... in holland they CHARGE YOU if they screw up and you need help) and vodafone charges my prepaid phone 35 euro cents per minute for the call (of course I try to call using skype but the number is "not allowed to be called" according to skype (damnit!!!).
Now it's sunday morning... after a good run and a good gym session I try again in the middle of the afternoon... I call.. it works.. but I don't understand the touch tone options so I get transferred to some lady who can't help me cause she doesn't deal with internet problems so she transfers me to the internet support team and of course they are busy and I get put on hold.. it's it now 10 minutes in and the call has already costed me 7 euros (11 bucks) .. and finally I get to a guy... he says he'll have to look to make sure that I have paid .... and then I ask if I can still get the tickets for the same price (as sunday being past the two week period the tickets are now more expensive) and he said no... all he can do is refund the money and I have to try again... but he would have to inquire to see if he can use the funds to a new ticket if I wanted.. so I said might as well (since ( already booked our return tickets from Germany) and btw.. I did ask at the counter (that first time after I had trouble) and asked how much tickets were (after waiting in line for 1.5 hours (they usually have good prices (but the round trip was going to cost 240 euros for two people through the counter))... so F that... so anyways while this guy checks if he can do this for me my phone lets me know I'm almost out of money (that means the call was at about 18 euros since I had about 20 euros prepaid). The guy said to give me my number and he'll call me back. F... so after this call I do check my credit and I ave 70 cents left!!!! he calls me back and makes arrangements (thank god I don't have to use the internet again .. so sketchy on their site) and I have to pay the difference of 36 euros when I pick up the tickets. and thinkin that the call was still costing me money when he called me I just said ok ok.. whatever... so after hanging up good thing no credit was taken.
so all in all this one way trip through the dutch website WOULD'VE costed me 75 euros for two people.. but now it costs 111 euros for two people and including the phone time 130 euros for two people... this was the most frustrating booking I have made here in europe so far as everything else has gone smoothly. and yes THAT's just one way.. good thing I found a deal through the german site for a sleeper train to come back and that booking was super easy.
so instead of the train costing about 65 euros person (so 90 bucks)... it now costs about 95 euros per person (140 bucks... all because of THEIR servers).
God... I can't believe they charge you for calling their help line... that just blows.
I just uploaded 35 videos onto video.google... holy crap.. that's just spain and italy... almost there!
From July 11 - 15th, I attended the festival of San Fermin in the city of Pamplona, Spain which is about a 5 hour bus ride north of Madrid. I also read somewhere that Pamplona has one of the best standards of living in Spain (bonus!). Anyways, the festival occurs every year and held annually form the 6th of July to midnight of the 14th of July (so over two weekends). Thus, having my good friend Anne over on the first weekend, I was able to take in the festivities at the end of the festival where as Inci, Remi, Ozkan, Anoi and Thomas from the boat (as well as Jenn and Blaire from lulu) were able to take in the crazy celebrations at the very beginning.
Every morning of the festival, there is the famous encierro, or the the running of the bulls along with other activities (so almost their version of the Calgary Stampede :P) From Wikipedia:
"It is known locally as Sanfermines and is held in honor of Saint Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona and of Navarre. Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of English-speaking peoples. It has become probably the most internationally renowned fiesta in Spain."
So it all started with my arrival from Madrid which the bus left Madrid at 1am and we arrived at 5:45am... my good friend Maria didn't expect me to be there that fast.. but I remember the small moments that when I wasn't passed out... the bus was going ultra fast (sorta reminded me of the Sunshine coach that one time to Banff..... crazy Europeans hee hee.) Thus Maria picked me up from the bus station (which was confusing because I was dropped off at the "new" one that was still under construction where as she was waiting for me at the "old" one. But after we were able to meet.. she was exhausted from the festivities and wanted to crash and I was up for more sleep too!
By the time we got up it was about 1 or 2 pm and I had the chance to meet Maria's mom Saria and Senior Raffa (I'm sure I spelled their names wrong (apologies!)) and her older sister Ana. Then I found out I had to wear only red and white (not a problem for this Canadian ;P) and luckily I brought white shorts and cheapy white pants and a bunch of white shirts and my Canada day shirt (man I was more prepared for that than what I expected).
We started off with typical Spanish lunch which happens to be their LARGEST meal of the day... we ate at about 3:30pm or 4pm and god her mom cooks FANTASTIC. I felt bad cause Maria was saying her mom was making more than what she normally does since I was there... oops*.
After lunch we were ready to browse the town now that it was about pm or so and the town is starting to cool down from the intense heat of the day. And after a gracious gift from her parents with a red handkerchief (the pañuelo) I was ready to rock!
We walked to the main square and met up with Maria's friend Fabienne from France who was also working in pamplona. And it so happens that Fabienne's parents were visiting as well.
The photo above is of Hotel La Perla where Hemingway stayed. From Wiki: "... a book about bullfighting, was published in 1932. Hemingway had become an aficionado after seeing the Pamplona fiesta of 1925, fictionalized in The Sun Also Rises. In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway extensively discussed the metaphysics of bullfighting: the ritualized, almost religious practice. In his writings on Spain, he was influenced by the Spanish master Pío Baroja (when Hemingway won the Nobel Prize, he traveled to see Baroja, then on his death bed, specifically to tell him he thought Baroja deserved the prize more than he)."
From there Maria gave us a nice tour of the her beautiful little town through the route of the bull run to the bull ring to the bar-filled streets to the edge of town and the gorgeous parks *phew*!!!
Two dudes playin an instrument from the Region.
apparently according to Maria, the red and white costume was a fairly recent thing.
At 12:00 midday every 6 th July, the Square in front of the Town Hall is witness to the chaos when the San Fermin Fiesta literally takes off with a bang. This moment is marked by a rocket - the "Chupinazo" - which is set off to announce the start of the Fiesta. read more here at the San Fermin guide
Spoiled by a gorgeous day to take in the panoramic sites of the city.
I remember reading somewhere... though I don't remember where that Pamplona has one of the highest concentrations of bars in one area. Man is that a true fact.. you can walk down one street and have easily 20 bars albeit they aren't full fledged multiroom complexes and more like a bar and a dance floor... but that's besides the point.
Wiki: "Each morning's event starts at 8 a.m... and the runners gather in an area at the beginning of the route called Cuesta de Santo Domingo, where they sing three times an ode before a statue of San Fermin placed in a niche in a wall there: 
Maria and Vanessa
After we split up from Maria's friend and her parents as Maria was going to meet some close friends Amalia and Nerea at one of the Pena's where her sister or her sister's friend is a member (Pena - Donibane).
We dropped into about 2 or 3 more bars before calling it a night by about 2 or 3... I can't remember... all in all a GREAT FIRST DAY.
some sexy sunglasses Maria found.
on the way back to Maria place..pizza and sandwiches out of a machine! Almost like febo in Amsterdam.
Man, went to Bikram yoga yesterday and boy is my body sore... means I am totally not practicing enough 0 i knew that though; my review of Bikram Yoga Amsterdam: good teaching, nice facilitiy, but it did smell like feet at the end of the class - I miss Bodhi Tree.
i have an urge to teach.. so thus I will be teaching karma yoga for my friends here in our spacious (for Amsterdam student standards), yet quaint apartment which conveniently the previous roommate took all of her stuff last weekend while I was away which included the couches.. the bonus... it really does look like a space for yoga now. and I will be doing this for august. damn.. what was that pose called again?... oh whatever I'll just make it up.
LP and Maroon 5 (Maroon cinque > 'cheenqweh' as they say in italy hee hee), and other misc media.
Elisa is an Italian artist that sings both in English and Italian.
M5 vid
haha a good commercial for "Very Victoria" for a show on MTV.it, an italian girl lip singing mandarin with an obviously cheesy dance... hot... not up on you tube yet...
new LP "bleed it out" not on you tube yet as it premiered in north america yesterday.
Despite the experience of Italian commuting - Calabria was F-ing Awesome!!!!!!... I kept saying to myself: "holy shit we are spoiled - spoiled spoiled spoiled spoiled" - and were we EVER. Thanks to my bud Domenico and his family it totally blew all expectations out of the water as we experienced sud d'Italia from sea to land to sky; and I like to say my Italian went from near non existent to attempts to forming simple phrases. I'll miss the life of breakfast, beach, lunch, beach/sleep, beach, dinner, sleep.
I now have a month of vacation from my vacations (yes just work) in the A'dam but that will have to be used for blogging spain and calabria as I have LOTS of pics to go through. In the mean time I will try to throw in random posts to try to keep it interesting.
Next big thing... my cuz is droppin by for almost two weeks! wahoo!!! I get to send home some crap with him hee hee.
